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Wife to donate kidney to husband

Amy and Steven Cook discuss their upcoming kidney transplant in their South Lubbock home. Amy will be giving a kidney to her husband.

When Steven and Amy Cook decided to get married in July 2000, they knew they were right for each other.

In February, doctors confirmed just how deep their bond goes.

On June 18, Amy will give one of her kidneys to her husband.

Instead of celebrating their 14th anniversary with a relaxing, romantic evening, Amy and Steven will most likely be spending it at home, in recovery.

Kidney trouble

Steven began experiencing kidney problems in the late 1990s.

One of the more visible signs was red spots on his legs, he said.

“They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him,” Amy said.

Blood tests were done to try and figure out what was going on.

“They found protein in my urine,” Steven said. “That led to more tests and my first kidney biopsy.”

He was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy. According to the Mayo Clinic website, it’s recognized as Berger’s disease.

When an antibody, immunoglobulin A, gets lodged in kidneys and causes inflammation, the kidneys’ ability to filter blood becomes hindered as a result, the website reads.

“Once it started damaging his kidneys, it was irreversible,” Amy said. “There are things he could have done, and he did, to try to slow the process down.”

In the past year, Steven’s health became worse, Amy said.

“He just started getting sick all the time,” she said. “He went in for another kidney biopsy.”

Steven’s doctor informed him he would need to get a kidney transplant.

The couple wasn’t surprised. Doctors had warned Steven he’d eventually need to go on dialysis and most likely need a new kidney.

The bigger shock was that it was actually happening, Amy said.

Through research, the couple learned Steven’s condition is not hereditary.

“It’s just a really crappy case of bad luck,” Amy said.

Finding a match

Following his doctor’s news, Steven began testing to make sure he was a good candidate for a transplant.

“I had to go through a series of tests just to find out where I was with the kidney disease,” he said. “We had to go to … a transplant center. So we spent the whole day going through all my orientation, testing, just overall education of what a kidney transplant is going to be like.”

Doctors ran tests on his heart, lungs, kidneys and more, Amy said.

They also did a stress test, which Steven failed twice.

“They do a stress test for your heart,” he said. “I had to have an angiogram after that. I failed it twice.”

The angiogram showed his heart was fine and Steven was able to move on with the testing process.

“When we first found out that he needed a kidney, after our first appointment last year, I called a really good friend of mine and I was talking to her about it,” Amy said. “I told her ‘I can do it.’ She said, ‘No you can’t. You have to think about your kids.’ I said, ‘Well, OK. Maybe not.’ Then I kind of didn’t think about it anymore.”

When Karen Coffman, Steven’s sister, volunteered to be his donor, Amy’s thoughts of being a donor went on a back burner.

Steven said his sister tried her best to get healthy.

“She joined a gym, she was eating right, she was doing everything right that you could possibly do,” Amy said.

But during testing, doctors found she was diabetic.

In February, Coffman was ruled out as a match.

“I started thinking about it a little more,” Amy said. “I didn’t talk to him about it because I know how he feels about it. Then when Karen was ruled out, it just seemed so natural that that’s what I had to do.”

So Amy began the testing process to see if she was her husband’s match.

To Steven’s dismay, Amy passed “with flying colors.”

Happy anniversary

Steven has come to terms with his wife’s kidney donation.

“I still don’t much care for it,” he said. “I don’t like having both of our kids’ parents in the hospital at the same time. But I don’t really have a choice.”

Their two children, 8-year-old Teddy and 5-year-old Connor, will spend that time with their aunt, Teddy said.

Amy said Teddy doesn’t completely understand what his parents will go through.

“He has this book,” Amy said. “We’ve pointed out to him where the kidney is and explained to him what it does. … He knows daddy is going to get a new kidney.”

Without Amy’s donation, it could take up to seven years for Steven to receive a transplant, she said.

The couple knows there’s a possibility that Steven’s body will reject the kidney, Amy said. But they remain optimistic about his future kidney health.

They have a pre-op appointment June 17 in San Antonio. Their surgeries will be performed the next day.

“I’ll be in the hospital up to three days,” Amy said. “He’ll be in the hospital up to seven days.”

Both of their mothers will spend time in the hospital with them and take care of them through their recoveries, Amy said.

“My mom’s going down with us,” Amy said. “She’ll stay with me. Then his mom is going to stay with him. … She’s going to stay with us here. My mom actually just lives a few blocks away. She’s a retired nurse, which is really helpful. We’re very lucky that we have some good friends who live a couple of streets away who are going to help us. They have a couple of kids our kids’ ages. … We have a lot of support, which is helpful, and supportive jobs.”

The family has been praying continuously that everything goes as planned, Amy said.

Recovery time for Steven is about four to eight weeks. Amy’s is six weeks or less with a more intense recovery process, she said.

“We’re going to make it work and everything is going to be just fine,” Amy said, smiling at her husband. “And I’m going to get a kick--- anniversary present.”